[UPDATED: An Artists' Perspective] Artists In Santa Ana Artists Village Cover Up for One of Their Own, Accused of Sexually Harassing Minors

​UPDATED: Andy Verostek, who leases a gallery in the Santora, has written a lengthy account of his take on the issue. He claims he was the first person to call the police after the incident happened and that only the friends of the accused have defended him and not Santora artists in an effort to maintain the positive image of the Artists Village--the latter's a lie. He also throws a red herring in the issue over Santa Ana police not releasing reports of the night, stating it "can't give copies of the police reports to people not named in them because they are not public record until a court case is actually filed."

Well, what about the victims themselves?And then Verostek gets weird.
"I cannot stand with Grrl Fair if their tactic is to burn down the whole village in order to smoke out one rat," he writes.

Again with circle-the-wagon mentality! Man, did the Diocese of Orange give you advice in crisis management? Word to the wise: DROP IT.

Meanwhile, another Santora artist sent the following and asked to remain anonymous for the obvious reason:

I knew this was going to happen. I got into big arguments about it with some [Santora building tenants] about the way it seemed they were handling the story. I am an artist there, and I was not apathetic about the situation. Maybe to correct the record, it should say the "Santora Guild," not the Artist Village artists, that is involved in this mess. Some of us were furious and had no idea about the decisions being taken in all of our names. Breaks my heart.

ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 21, 8:48 A.M.: My colleague Gabriel San Romanbroke the story this morning of how organizers of this year's Grrl Fair, the county's decade-old celebration of all things womyn, are planning a protest May 7 in Santa Ana's Artists Village
during its much-ballyhooed Art Walk. They claim that during the March
12 Grrl Fair in downtown Santa Ana, an artist in the Santora Building
constantly groped underage girls and that Santora management (under the
rule of mega-developer Mike Harrah), artists and the city's police
department have not bothered with their pleas for action.

But it gets worse than that--much worse. The Weekly
can now report that artists in the Artists Village not only knew about
the alleged incident, but also have tried to keep it under wraps for fear of
bringing negative coverage to their slice of paradise.

I first learned about the incident when someone forwarded me this cryptic blog post alleging sexual harassment during Grrl Fair. The event wasn't mentioned by name, but listed "Artist Village" as the location. What got me enraged was the following passage:

We go to one of the other gallery owners for help, and in turn, he tells
us this is not the first time this man has done this. They wanted to
keep it quiet because they didn't want people to think badly of the
building.

Child-molester cover-up? NOT COOL. I confirmed the story with Grrl Fair attendees, then checked in with some of the artists I know in the Village, whose names I will spare for the obvious reasons: they not only confirmed that one of their own acted inappropriately during Grrl Fair and had acted inappropriately in the past, but they also urged me to not write anything, claiming they had the issue under control because they wrote a letter to the artist in question.

Asking a reporter not to do a story? NOT COOL. I refrained from immediately publishing anything, only because the Grrl Fair organizers were trying to go through the legal, proper channels and wanted to get copies of police reports before going public. There was also a debate within their circles about whether to publicize the issue at all, for fear that the Artists Village wouldn't welcome Grrl Fair back next year. But since Santa Ana's finest have dragged their feet on the issue (why?) and the Grrl Fair organizers have publicly revealed their story, might as well tell the full tale now.

"Since the police have not processed our
reports, we cannot give out this man's name," reads Grrl Fair's official statement. "We can only let you know, as
long as that man is there, downtown is not a safe space for women and
girls."

And here, I'll repeat what I told the artists after their jaw-dropping admission to me: You should've booted the bastard when you had the chance and not cared about the reputation of the Artists Village because when the story comes out, you're just going to make the image issue worse.

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Hmmm, you'd think that in a building potentially full of butch lesbians perhaps they would have ganged up on the perv... This sounds a little far fetched that many women would just allow some d-bag to grope them without making a huge scene about it. And why are no women carrying pepper spray in a downtown where there was a murder not too long ago? If this was a one person incident this would be truly awful, but for a group of women who are gathering to show expression and the power of womanhood this is unacceptable. What would have made it a better grrl fair than to have all the lesbians gang up and kick some perv's butt. C'mon!

One further comment, Gustavo. You are right to be enraged by both the actual harassment and the slow progress of the complicated legal procedure, but I do think you have a responsibility to not let your anger blur the lines between reportable fact and emotional response. Upon first reading this blog on Thursday I wanted to grab my pitchfork, find this drunken deviant, tar and feather him and ride him out on a rail. And then I was ashamed of myself; I was basing my rush to judgment on this post alone: A couple hundred words with no names, full of vague implication and righteous indignation.

You could have written 'some artists in the Santora Guild not only knew about the alleged incident...' but you wrote '...artists in the Artists Village not only knew about the alleged incident...'

I don't need to tell you that language is important and the words you use help to define how it will be perceived. Here's a little made up story for you:

After work one night a columnist for an independent local weekly was out drinking with some work mates. He became extremely drunk and began hitting on the newly hired woman's issues editor. She made it clear that she was uninterested in his advances, but he was drunk and an idiot to boot and he took a couple liberties. Naturally she slapped him.

It just so happened that the scene was witnessed by a freelancer for TMZ who began to interrogate the young woman about her assault. Immediately, the drunken columnist's only friend at the weekly, his editor, brushed the TMZer away with a "beat it, bub".

The young woman filed a complaint with HR the next morning, Nevertheless TMZ reported that night:

Dear customers, thank you for your support of our company.Here, there's good news to tell you: The company recentlylaunched a number of new fashion items! ! Fashionableand welcome everyone to come buy. If necessary,welcome to :===== www.asicsstores.com========T-shirts ( ,ed hardy,lacoste) $14New era cap $12

i am a victim and a witness to him groping other girls. i went to the police to file a report and they just like you - have done nothing. this is the end of the line. the public needs to know what he has done and that they are not safe as long as he is still a tenant in the building you all share. you may be ok with him being there, but it doesn't seem anyone else outside of his "peers" are.

I have heard that the Police PD is in a position of not following through with an investigation because the victims will not produce a report with their names.

PD from what I hear can not proceed without the victim names in the report. It apparently is PD policy.

@ Gustavo you know you no bettet then those you point fingets at sibce your pockets are being lined by a publication that promotes a sex trade drug culture more then half ur pubication that pays ur bills phucking hyporcret it because of ads like you there are sex fenned perverts you should clean up your own backyard

Gustavo, as a resident of Artist's Village (though not in the Santora building), I've got to say I'm extremely disappointed in the way you've reported this story. My main gripe is that you show an alarming lack of understanding about what constitutes the DTSA community.

Obviously harassing females, sexually or otherwise, is unacceptable and further, those who try and cover up such behavior are complicit. But you make it seem like the entire community is involved in a cover up and I can guarantee that is not the case. I live on Broadway and frequent the bars & restaurants of my neighborhood, and I've been spinning records at Memphis on Saturday nights for over five years, but the first time I heard about this incident is when I read this blog. Suffice to say I was alarmed that such antics were tolerated by the Santora folk. But I must confess that I felt the tone of the piece to be disingenuous with regards to the overall community.

Discussing this item with my DTSA friends and neighbors (many women included) it was apparent that very few people were aware this incident even occurred (heck, I didn't even know there was a Grrl Fair, and I was DJ'ing that night, which btw, was not an Art Walk), but every single one us were disgusted by the idea of it. We were also (every single one of us) unhappy with the way you approached the reporting of it.

You can bet that when we do find out the name of the perpetrator that he will be (at the very least) a community pariah, and that those who were involved in a cover up will feel the wrath of the community at large.

But to imply that the entire community or Art walk is somehow responsible for the actions of what amounts to a very few is a horrible way to frame the story. In researching your piece, for example, did you ask for input from the management at Grand Central, Memphis, Lola's, Proof or Gypsy Den (you know, businesses in the neighborhood you're trashing)? How about any of the (non Santora building) residents? Your reporting is very narrowly framed, doesn't paint a fair representation of DTSA and is thus harmful to the overwhelming majority of artists and residents who were not only unaware of the criminal actions of a few, but would not have tolerated it if they had been aware.

So, Grrls, go ahead and protest at Artwalk, just so long as your protesting the few who were responsible and not Artwalk itself and the community at large.

And Gustavo, you're a decent writer, so, if you're going to make your story about the community response rather than about a pervert and his (few) protectors, how about putting a little effort into getting a full story and solicit input from those in the community?

@ grrl fair your mission is to honor the endevers and achievements of women right? Are thes just dead women or living women becuase there are quit a few number of women in the santora trying to do the very best they can. And your protests and slander against building with which they reside in part of or mission youshould be ashamed of hypocrisy you promote selfesh behavor an juvenile take your issues into a court of law like real people not in the streets like thugz

Just a note to all: Keep in mind that this incident happened between 10:30 and 11:00. After curfew, there is a good reason minors are to be home by 10. Most of the galleys were closed by 10:00 and those gallery owners were gone. What was left was an overcrowded building with extremely loud hard music, supervised by the"Grrls". No minor should have been there without adult. This does not justify unwanted sexual advances on anyone. Keep a check on your perspective. Judge others the way YOU would want to be judged. Before you hang the violator be sure you have all the evidence and that it is a hanging offense. As I read all this posts I see a vigilante group forming, I'm reminded of what I learned in church, "those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones".

The alleged violator has been punished, he has lost favor from his piers for his alleged actions, he has brought shame on himself and caused the Santora to endure all this condemnation.

Artists emotions are on the surface and feel condemnation deeply, he is suffering internal punishment. His life will never be the same his place in the art community is gone.

What good does it do to protest innocent artists who are struggling to pay rent, they have been suffering through 2 years of bad economy. They have no authority to take any legal action.

Protest the legal system, get involved, change the legal process, that's the American way.What ever action you choose to take, be sure it is directed where it will serve your cause.Why hurt the Innocent who have no power. Sorry, this is a little more than a note, guess I sound a little preachie. If this isn't long enough read "http://www.nomadicimage.com/" he was there and tells it from his perspective.

But I hope you're not trying to 'blame' Gustavo for the ads in the back of the Weekly, or to imply that somehow those ads encourage/create sexual perversion, because not only would that be wrong but it's also a logical fallacy that has nothing to do with this discussion.

Never implied the entirety of the Village was at fault here; however, let's see all good, offended people join the Grrl Fair protest instead of worrying about what said protest will do for the image of the area.

I've read and re-read this article many times, and never once have I felt that he has he implied the entire art walk, or the community of DTSA, or that he's "trashing" the neighborhood.He's stating what happened, and about those who WERE aware of it.

thank you for sharing your side of the story!! this post needs to be updated pronto with the title changed. its not true at all. don't blame them for not getting the story right, kinda hard to write about an event that they werent there for.

We did think about them... along with everyone else who is not the “person in question”. Which is WHY we waited and tried to work with whoever gave us the time of day -- which by the way, was only one person. The advice given to the majority of the artists in the building was not to get involved and they were more than happy to oblige and ignore what happened in hopes we'd just fuck off. Well, this is the result of you protecting that piece of shit and sitting on your asses.

How many of you bothered to do contact your building manager to inform him of what had happened or let him know you did not condone his behavior and that he should be reprimanded? HOW MANY OF YOU? You think that because you “did not do anything wrong”, it is ok to just sit back and ignore the situation… well it isn’t.

There was a bat shit crazy lady at the Santora that yelled at us and said, "this happens to women everywhere, all of the time. What makes you think you can do anything about it?"

She was dead serious, too... I don’t know if she is a tenant but fuck her.

What really bothers me about this whole thing is that had you reported this correctly you would have had everyone on your side, and we would have all supported the rally, but instead you had to be vague, disingenuous and argumentative. Instead of trying to correct your ambiguities and address the concerns of those who were appropriately confused by your piece, you added more fuel to the fire, you went immediately to the defensive and started hurling accusations (anyone who questioned your reporting was somehow abetting a cover up and protecting a sex offender).

Because of your reporting, Gus, and yes, I'm blaming you, I would vote to not allow the Grrl Fair to have functions in DTSA. And I generally agree with their agenda. I don't know who Khalim is (I might recognize him by sight) but believe he should be in jail (although I understand his crime was a misdemeanor) if he molested any one. But based on this blog (and Andy's letter) I'm not sure Grrl Fair handled this incident very well, either.

You write that no Grrl Fair folk have had a problem with your coverage, and yet I wonder if they realize the great disservice you've done to their cause. And what exactly are people disgusted with me about? I've never sided with image over justice (though you keep playing that card) and never said a bad thing about the Grrl Fair (the above paragraph being a possible lone exception), but because I wanted you to clarify your language and be more precise with details somehow I'm worthy of disgust.

When discussing this incident (and specifically your coverage), more than a few OC residents (not just the DTSA crew) have had less than complimentary things to say about you, Gustavo, and your writing in general. It appears this is not the first time your lazy language skills have caused confusion and doubt. Dude, no one questions your passion about reporting what you believe in, but come on, you're a nationally syndicated columnist, so why not spend a little more time with your word choices and syntax.

I suppose we're never going to agree about how badly you mangled this assignment, but in the future perhaps we can learn to be a little more civil to one another. If you promise to lay off the ad hominem attacks, I agree not to lob 'em back at you.

Say I wrote an article that blared: "Gustavo Arellano Sexually Molests Under Age Artist" and suppose you objected to the fact that you hadn't actually molested anyone, and tried to clear your name. And then suppose I wrote another article about how you were obsessed with your reputation and image at the expense of a youngster that had been molested. By your arguments you're wrong to attempt to clear your name because a child has been assaulted. It's a logically fallacy, guy. Contain your misplaced righteous indignation because you're not helping anybody (especially not the Grrl Fair victims) with the kind of vague accusatory mongering you've hurled here.

And you're wrong. There are plenty of Artist's Village artists who are all for taking action against perverts among us who ALSO have HUGE problems with your coverage. It's not a case of one or the other. And you have to acknowledge the fact that taking issue against your extremely poor coverage of the incident and its aftermath does not mean we are condoning criminal actions or attempting to protect pedophiles and/or drunken perverts.

Gustava, In your opening paragraph you state the Man was "constantly" groping underage girls (plural), which brings up images of a sexual predator at large. Was this a case of a guy getting drunk (too drunk) and grabbing ass, and grabbing the wrong ass (16 yr. old)? If the police did not lock up this alledged pediphile at first contact, then they probably don't have enough hard evidence DNA, bloodstains, bruno malis, etc.. to hold the perv. And since the police are powerless, why does it land on the artists to take vigilante action in order to make this right? It is obvious that you did not 'exclude' the majority of the artists in your shame blame game, in fact, you tried to tie the entire artists village to it (the bit at the end about the reputation of the artists village). You claim to have talked to the police, GF, and artists, and my sense is that you concluded the artists need to take action or should have (again with the insistance of vigilanteism), or you will help to sully their reputation in the community. Vengence is yours! Teabag on! Maybe the Register needs another editorial commentator. With your command of the facts you'd fit "right" in.

Your right ill find a attorny to correct my spelling for know on perhaps he can help me spell slander i wonder how gustavos editor would feel about that, iam just a art collector pertecting my investments that all and i belive in the artist village from gallaries to restruants to night life and thats my last 2¢ good luck with your endevors.

What you should say is 'never meant to imply the entirety of the Village was at fault...' because I'm not the only one who read it that way.

And whereas I'm certainly not worrying what a protest will do to the image of the area (especially at the expense of the victims of a sexual predator), I am concerned about how a poorly reported story that borders on misinformation might unfairly tarnish my neighborhood.

If you'd like, I can name names—and, given the downright-nasty comments toward the victims here (and my knowledge of their names (I'm putting you on check, "jpmorgan"), maybe I should...of course, then people will have an issue with that!

He writes '...that artists in the Artists Village not only knew about the alleged incident, but have tried to keep it under wraps for fear of bringing negative coverage to their slice of paradise...'

He doesn't qualify that it's not all the artists in the AV and, I'm sorry, but to someone who might not have ever been to Artwalk or isn't familiar with the difference between the Santora Bldg and other DTSA galleries, the inference is that the entire community is to blame.

Perhaps, Vasquez, because you are better informed and (maybe) had a perspective on this story before Mr Arellano put up this post, but all the DTSA residents I spoke with felt the entire community was implicated. After all, this is our 'slice of paradise', too.

Vasquez is right, there are mentions of "artists in the artists village". The ambiguity and lack of lucidity to whom the author is talking about allows the reader to automatically asscoiate all individuals within the area as afiliated. Poor writing in all its absurdity can definitely cause a lot of unnecessary upheaval. Gustavo should possibly think of changing jobs, maybe become an "artist".

It is hard to watch something you believe in with everything you have be criticized, i am not speaking for"Fuck You" I am speaking on behalf of my self, this event was had an amazing turn out, there were many amazing people that were apart of this years event.

Fuck you didnt change thier tone, realize where they are coming from, having no help from the people that get types of issues. The building and the SAPD wanted nothing to do with it. So this is the final step as i have said before. The chain of commands can only work if the higher ups work with the lower people to solve the problem.

So to solve this problem, we have to work together and Grrl Fair has not had any cooperation from anyone. So, this is what they get, they get to be shown for who they really are. This building is harboring a preditor. THAT IS ALL THIS IS ABOUT.

i dont understand why people started commenting on this and calling out Grrl Fair. In no way is Grrl Fair to blame the santora and the SAPD for not getting a preditor off the streets and letting him violate women and girls for who knows how long. This man should be on megans law, not selling over priced art work from a gallery where women and children frequently hang out.

Your not victim the acuser nor thee acused and neither is everyone else that isnt invoved all im saying your right there is a right way and a wrong way to have your issue resolved IN THE GAWDAMN COURT ROOM so no one else gets hurt

There goes that image-burnishing again. Where did I say the Artists Village molested underage girls, or that the entirety of the Artists Village is trying to cover it up? Never did, never have, because it's not true. Funny how the Grrl Fair folks haven't had a problem with my coverage, but some over-sensitive artists have. Also? More than a few artists have confirmed their disgust with people like yourself, but fear revealing their names because Groupthink seems to rule over y'all.

Damn straight artists should take action with the pervert among them. Some are; some aren't. Those who are don't have any issue with my coverage; those who aren't consist of the whiners here like yourself!

Oh, I take full responsibility to what I wrote, and I stand by them AND put my name behind my comments, unlike too many other artists here. "Tarnish my neighborhood"? There goes that image obsession again!

I'm sick of arguing with you, Adjective. You're entitled to your opinion as am I to mine.I've re-read the article just now for the umpteenth time and I still see the same points when I first read it: what happened, where it happened, and what people didn't do and what people are going to do about it.Good luck with your future endeavors.

The bottom line, Vasquez, is that the point is continually getting buried BECAUSE of the way Gustavo wrote this post. If he had been more clear, less ambiguous, hadn't put the whole community on the defensive w/ poor word choices then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Gustavo, you owe it to journalistic integrity, if you have any, to clear this up and give us a better constructed column. I don't care if it's all one-sided, just get the facts right and be precise about them so that people can't easily get the wrong idea.

And I agree with you, Adjective, that perhaps this could've been written differently. But I do think you're being a bit dramatic with the pitchfork imagery. Think about it this way: this was posted last Thursday...and there haven't been angry mobs prowling Santora or DTSA, as you claim is the immediate reaction to anyone having read the article.And when I said egocentric, I meant your taking personal offense to how you FELT the story portrays all of the artists' community and DTSA. I never said you were for sexual harassment or the like, and in fact I've found you to be one of the more logical responsers.You've also changed, at least in your last comment, why you are angry: first you were claiming it was how DTSA was portrayed, now you're saying it's that the post is uniformly written, etc etc and still putting the point of the post on the backburner.That's all I'm saying.

All I'm saying, Vasquez, is Gustavo could have written this in a way that told the story (from all salient points of view) and cut away most of the ambiguity. As it stands I'm not sure which galleries I should be mad at or if some of the girls wouldn't prefer that this jerk's name got out, even if it compromised the court case. I understand the frustration of the slow movement in our legal system, but why can't GA check his his anger and write something less vague and more informative instead of whipping people into a frenzy on all sides of the issue.

I'm not being egocentric about this. I think we can all agree that sexual harassment (at Grrl Fair, no less) is completely unacceptable. ESPECIALLY where underage kids are concerned, and that the perpetrator should be dealt with legally. The last thing we need, however, is an angry mob with pitchforks, and I'm sorry, but the above blog sets a tone that encourages an uninformed emotional response.

You're correct that he wrote it somewhat ambiguously, I won't argue with that.But nowhere does it say anything in totality, like 'ALL ARTISTS in the Village not only knew..' or something like 'THE community of DTSA'.To this, I have to respond: "but all the DTSA residents I spoke with felt the entire community was implicated. After all, this is our 'slice of paradise', too."...that's how you FEEL (your words exactly). I'm not saying your feelings or those of which you spoke to don't matter, but just because you FEEL implicated doesn't mean you were. I think a lot of people are taking the entire situation very egocentrically; looking at a few words and getting angry/defensive about that, and not the real issue at hand: that girls and women were and have been harrassed in varying degrees, and it appears that not much has been done to bring the man at fault to justice.As for being "better informed" or anything of that such, let me tell you that's totally untrue. I'm simply a reader who saw this post Thursday morning. I've held my tongue since, but I'm astonished at the comments it's received, and how people seem to be ignoring the actual point of this post.

You assume way too much then leave those poor people out of your issue and consult your attorny my attorny friend says this is a open closed shut intrapment case i wish u the best dosent mean you have tarnish the reputation of others thats spent the last decade there im shure youll do the right thing whats honestly in your heart

i am a victim and a witness to him groping other girls. i went to the police to file a report and they just like you - have done nothing. this is the end of the line. the public needs to know what he has done and that they are not safe as long as he is still a tenant in the building you all share. you may be ok with him being there, but it doesn't seem anyone else outside of his "peers" are.

JP if you care about the santora you need to have someone else speak for them. As i read through these posts. You should not by any means be representing the santora. You are not making them look good with some of your comments. Trying to defend the female artists in the building yet at the same time saying you would go to china and commit gendercide as a hostile response to someone else is not in anyway helping the santora at all. If you want to help. Get that man out of that building if you know who he is.